Today on a press conference call, Marvel Comics announced a new Spider-Man ongoing series called The Avenging Spider-Man. On the conference call was the series writer Zeb Wells and artist Joe Madureira along with editor Steve Wacker.
The new title was described as a way to provide a more "summer action movie of Spider-Man" focusing on his life as a member of the Avengers. Wells explained that he felt that Dan Slott had nailed the telling of Peter Parker and his personal life in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man, but this book was meant to focus on the action part of his life in his adventures with fellow Avengers.
To expand on that concept, Wacker explained that the book came out of a conversation he had with Zeb Wells back when Wells was writing Amazing Spider-Man over a year ago about the old classic Marvel Team-Up and whether or not that book could exist again. Wacker explained that he always hated Marvel Team-Up because the stories never mattered in the main continuity, but for this book, the indea of keeping the book focused as Spider-Man as a member of the Avengers combined with the fact that Zeb Wells and Joe Madureira were available, and the book came together.
For art duties, this is a dream come true for Joe Madureira, who revealed that of all the Marvel characters, his favorite is Spider-Man. "Spidey has been my favorite since I was a kid." When asked about the challenge of a monthly ongoing title, Joe Mad explained, "About once a year, I get the itch that I really want to draw comics again, but my schedule has so much going on that makes it impossible. But enough people asked me and they offered Spider-Man, so I couldn't say no. What if I get hit by a truck next month? I gotta draw Spidey."
Madureira went on to explain that after drawing so many team books more recenlty, he's excited to draw a single character, despite the fact that Wells has written the first arc to involve Spider-Man and the Red Hulk going sub-terranean and dealing with an army of Moloids who invade the New York City Marathon, which has taken up most of Joe Mad's time, drawing hundreds of Moloids. But most importantly, he's doing a great job and Wacker and Wells agreed as Joe Mad added, "You can tell when I'm loving it and when I'm not. I want people to remember this and talk about it."
Wells explained that they only have the first arc set at 3 issues, and are still deciding how long the second arc will be, but fans can look forward to Spider-Man teaming up with the rest of the Avengers, including Wolverine, an idea that excited Joe Mad very much. Additionally, a future villain for an arc will be the Vulture, but Wells warned that's a teaser as that idea is just in his head and not on paper yet.
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Damn those’re some pretty pencils. Too bad I find Spider-Man more annoying than my neighbor’s barking dog.
I really like Amazing being the only monthly Spidey book. Not really sure I see the need for a book featuring his team based activities since there are the team books for that.
Looks great. I wasn’t around in the 90s when all of the people I follow on twitter developed a bad taste in their mouths for joe mad.
Cap’n Steve is still Cap’n Steve in November. Interesting.
Is this Spider-man team up?
“Wacker explained that he always hated Marvel Team-Up because the stories never mattered in the main continuity…”
UGGH. Even folks in the industry talk about this “mattering” crap.
@siraim That was the first thing i thought too! What does it mean? Will he be cap’n steve and captain america
@comicBOOKchris He does have a point. I remember in the 90s Howard the Duck guest starred in Spider-Man Team Up one issue and then the next year they put Howard in another book saying he had been absent from the marvel universe for years. i was like, “Wait, do you guys even read your own books? He was in a spidey book like 6 months ago.”
But the only thing that matters is which of thsoe was the better story.
Sign me up! Joe Mad was hinting at this, I think, back in November at Wizard World. He just kept name-checking Spidey in almost every question at his panel. Every question that didn’t involve Darksiders, that is.
I have to say that I am pretty excited about this pairing. It should be good. Joe Mad can certainly draw. Hopefully, Marvel can keep him on schedule.
You couldn’t have picked a better team to ensure I never read a book. No interest at all.
And I guess I’m finally dropping Invincible Iron Man
comic pencils look so nice and humanistic before its run through that buzz saw called “photoshop”.
my main concern with this book is the coloring. Ultimates 3, despite it being poorly written in my opinion, would have at least been saved with great coloring. Instead we got this muddy muddy coloring job. Joe Mad looks best when the colors are as vibrant as his pencils
April… Fools?
Wait so its a Spider-Man title without the Peter Parker problems & situations that Spidey tries to solve like an oridnary guy that truly make Amazing superb at times? Yeah I think I’ll pass, nice art though.
my love for spidey will get me to buy this book but being as how he is in a ton of marvel books that i read already it’s not going on my pull list just yet
Joe Mad still got it. It makes me feel like it’s 1998 again
This is the kind of surprise penciler announcement DC should have made with the reboots.
Exactly what SpiderTitan said. I’ve been reading old Spidey comics the past few months and I feel the first 100-150 issues Spectacular Spider-Man were better than Amazing SM because Spectacular focused more on Spidey’s life and relationships, while ASM was mostly just him just beating up villians.
I want to pass up on this but more Spider-man, Zeb Wells, Not bad pencils, and Rulk all have me excited. I can deal with this book being more focused on action as long as there is a spider-man book being published focusing more on peter
What’s next? Uncanny Wolverine focusing on Wolverine’s time with the X-Men?
What happened to Spider-man that he needs avenging?
I think it was back on Peter Parker: Spider-Man I first read Zeb Wells. He wrote some great issues. This should be a great new title especially if Zeb Wells gets to do some world building ie Spider-Man’s role within and relationship to the avengers and such.
I’d sooner buy all the DC relaunches than ever buy a book with joe mad attached to it…
That’s not coming out on time…but I’ll still buy it. 🙂
For now, I may buy it, but here are the things giving me pause:
1) I am still not entirely certain Joe Mad can meet any kind of regular deadline.
2) I thought the whole purpose of Amazing’s Brand New Day publishing schedule (somewhat held over in Big Time) was that there were no other Spider-titles in main continuity. Amazing would come out two or three times a month and tell a continuous story instead of us getting Spectacular, Amazing, Adjectiveless Web of, and Sensational or whatever they were putting out at the time.
There are a couple more, but they are not related to comics, so I’ll leave them out of this forum. I may wait for some buzz and then buy a couple of back issues if I decide to get on the train.
I dont know about everyone else but i am excited. Give me a new colorist and it is one of my favorite artists of all time and Wells did some of my favorite stories in Brand new day so i cant complain at all!
So we get another Avengers book that makes all of the other Avengers seem like Spidey’s sidekick…..and it’s drawn by somebody who has an art style that not only makes me recoil in horror, but would rather play video games all day than meet a deadline? yeah, I’ll pass on that.
Marvel still considers something like this press conference worthy after DC’s announcement? Wow.
This is the best Marvel can come up with to answer DC’s reboot and day and date digital? Lame.
@IroncladMerc Well, I doubt it’s a counter strike. It’s just their current news.
@PaulMontgomery yeah but they hyped it up 3 days in advance with a big announcment on their website. They said this was going to be “The Next Big Thing” in comics. I happen to disagree, they hyped it up for a small announcement like this.
Um. Why would Marvel need to have an answer for DC’s reboot? They weren’t the creative mess DC was. It it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I’ll be buying Spiderman and his Avenging Friends.
Now that’s a tagline I could totally be proud of!
This is going to be a title worth breaking my “no single issues” rule. Best part of the “Marvel Team Up” style storytelling is that no matter weither Joe MAD can stick to the schedule, it won’t be super encased in current continuity. Crazy stoked for this to drop, Zeb Wells wrote some of my favorite Spidey stories in the last five years, and I’ll always have a place in my heart for Joey Mad.
I’m so excited year of spiderman
Why would marvel the number 1 company by a landslide need to counter dc. Have you not seen the diamond charts .
Flood that market!
Looks interesting and I love the pencils. I enjoy many styles of art…that is kind of the point of comics. It is an art form that accepts Styles ranging from Joe Mad to Alex Maleev to Skottie Young to Steve Epting. Asa long as they tell a good story and I enjoy it, bring on different styles.
@nastysnow Perhaps because the past 2 weeks Marvel has virtually disappeared from the comics news cycle.
@Prax I couldn’t disagree more. I’m glad they’re getting some of the old brain trust back. Just hoping they recapture some of the magic that Slott has clearly lost
I still love Joe Mad’s art and gave nothing against wells – so I’ll give it a shot for sure BUT…
22 Books gotta be at least bi-monthly. Joe Mad has had a deadline aversion in the past.
22 Arts gotta be inked and colored cleanly. Not the bloody mess that Ultimates was.
Those things happen, I’ll be white on rice.
Ooops…meant to “have nothing” not “gave nothing” AND the “22”s are supposed to be bullet points (that apparently don’t translate from my iPhone). Sorry folks.
Amazing has totally lost me lately. Funny how I’d be a lot more likely to check it out if it was 2.99… I think I’d rather buy two 2.99 books than one 3.99 book.
Those pencils are stunning
@magnus they can disapear from the news cycle but they still dominate the charts.
I recently re-read Madureira’s run on Uncanny X-Men and was saddened that his art did wow me as much as it used to, but I am still really glad he’s go to (attempt to) do a regular book. Actually, I thought that Uncanny 346, which focused on Spider-Man, was his best single issue of that run.
As has been noted, the coloring will be the major factor in deciding if I purchase the first issue.
I don’t care what Joe Mad did in the 90’s, those pencils look tight! As for there being no need for this cause of his action being in Avengers, I disagree as to how much of Spideys exploits do we really see there? This has potential to be a great run, fun and exciting. Hope it has a little edge and not too campy. Also, “mattering” and continuity” or the combined thereof, who cares? Marvel Team-Up doesn’t need to be part of the continuity cause thats why its there, to see characters together you usually don’t. I love DC Elseworlds stories for that fact even more, good ones anyways. Sometimes its nice not to need to constantly keep up with ongoing titles and have closure to a story. In the end, good stories are good stories and to me thats what comics are all about.
can we get a monthly spider-man book about spider-man?? Amazing is weekly and about spidey with FF or Avengers or whoever else slott wants to try to write, I think finally with 663 it’s back to just spider-man stuff. man I hated those issues with the FF.
I know this isn’t a response for DC’s reboot, but what a huge miss by Marvel here. They’re going to need to counter something, and fast, after this whole announcement. But what do they announce instead? Yet another book for a character who doesn’t need one. Plus with Joe Mad drawing this it’s just going to look ugly as sin.
What a waste of an opportunity by Marvel.
I was hooked when they said Joe Mad…even though I feel slightly like a battered housewife going back for one last try…
Sounds fun.
@TheNextChampion Marvel already owns DC in sales and quality, Marvel doesn’t need to counter with anything. Now be quiet and go read you’re Deadpool books :p
@bigben2012 and @TheNextChampion: “Ugly as hell”… are you kidding me? Those preview pencil panels posted above look great and Spidey on the cover looks solid, I do think Mad has some art I wasn’t a fan of in the past but it looks like he matured his style and is more refined, even though his Wolverine does look over proportioned on the cover but not in the interior panels.
I couldn’t agree more with Marvel not needing to counter anything as they’re position is on top but they’ll probably drop something big and sweet around the same time to boot. “go read you’re Deadpool books” hilarious! I like Deadpool on Uncanny X-Force but his solo run and the demand for him to be everywhere is ridiculous. Give him an edgy run with humor comments limited to the right moments with a plot that requires thought and we’re on to something.
Good to see Joe Mad back. I loved his work on Uncanny as a kid back in the 90s. I’ll definitely scope this one out. I just hope he can keep a monthly schedule. I know he’s pretty busy working on Darksiders 2 as their concept artist, so I hope he’s not stretching himself too thing.
@JSAkid I agree with the “ugly as hell.” Art is all subjective. I actually really like Joe Mad’s composition and scenes, the way he arranges the characters, the “camera angle” are all top flight. But I hate how he draws people. They all have these faces that look like they came out of bad anime, and they have enormous bodies with shoulders so slanted you can ski down them. Just makes me recoil.
Here’s another point. People keep saying Marvel needs to “counter” DC. Why? What DC does shouldn’t matter. Yes, marvel already has the biggest piece of the market share. But Marvel is a business. This isn’t a competition to sell the most comics. It’s a business trying to make money. Whether DC sells one book or a million books, Marvel’s goal is not to out sell DC. Marvel’s goal is to turn a profit. They don’t have to out sell DC to make a profit, they just have to earn more than they spend to produce their comics. And whatever DC tries to do, Marvel has a lot of fans who are going to keep buying their comics, not to mention to legion of kids who are going o watch their cartoons, scores of people who will see their movies, and all of the licensed properties they will sell. When marvel is selling Wolverine action figures and Spider-Man bed sheets by the ton, I don’t think they are worried that DC may sell a few thousand extra comics. It really doesn’t effect Marvel at all.
@JohnVFerrigno “People keep saying Marvel needs to “counter” DC. Why? What DC does shouldn’t matter. It really doesn’t effect Marvel at all.“
That’s so wrong I can’t even decide from which angle to argue it.
@voodoomama
Such an apt analagy. I feel the same way. “He says he’s changed, and he’ll stick arround this time, and I love him so much.”
I know a lot of people dislike his art, but I can’t get enough of it. My only Joe Mad complaint is his short attention span.
I’ll be checking it out. Maybe it’ll be the type on book that I can just pick up when I’m excited about that month’s guest star or something.
Zeb Wells’ comment on continuity really bugs me (and appartently @comicBOOKChris @JSAkid).
It just feels like part of the reason why comics are such a niche market is because the stories can be so darn difficult to follow.
Love it!!! Going on my pull list.
Joe Mad is one of those artists that can spend as much time inbetween issues as he likes. ya the ultimates was crap writing and took too long to come out but i have all those issues to visually enjoy for forever. I remember when i was still in jr high/high school before i was really INTO comics i was buying Battle Chasers and nothing else. His art is THAT special to me
Seriously? There are people in the world who want this book? I’m not knocking the creators – I like both of them – but if anyone wants to see Spider-Man teaming up with other super heroes there are (at least) four major ongoing titles for that, each with pretty great creative teams. This is just… way beyond unnecessary.
@JohnVFerrigno The sad fact is Marvel and DC are fighting over an ever dwindling pie which I’m sure is part of the reason DC is going after the digital audience. There’s not an infinite amount of potential dollars out there to grab, only what’s left of an aging fanbase of diehard comic collectors. No number 1 company stays where they are by ignoring what their direct competitors are doing. People that don’t think Marvel cares what DC is doing have very little understanding as to how businesses work. That’s like saying Microsoft doesn’t care what Apple does. DC’s relaunch may flop, but Marvel can’t afford to wait around a few months to see what happens and then spend several more months developing new books if DC starts cutting into their market share.